I'm having a wooden kit built at the moment, its quite small and has two internal partitions that are not load bearing. My question is regarding the studs that make up the external walls, can they be drilled though to allow passage of pipework, cables etc? I have plenty of guidance on notching and drilling floor joists and not to cut into rafters, but what are we allowed to do with the studs that make up the external walls?

You need to treat them more or less the same as you would floor joists. Any notches will affect the structural strength of the timber. They may not be load bearing but they will form part of the structure. Usually I would drill centrally at about 200mm from the base. This should be about the right height for your sockets.

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